VIEW FROM THE ENEMY: Chelsea fan on Lukaku outdoing Morata, selling Matic and winning at Old Trafford

February 23, 2018

Ahead of Sunday’s game between Manchester United and Chelsea, Rory Jennings from CFC Fan TV has spoken to RoM about missing out on Romelu Lukaku, selling us Nemanja Matic and his predictions for the match.

Scott: What did you make of Chelsea’s performance against Barcelona? Do you expect more of the same against United?

Rory: We were incredible. It took everyone by surprise. After Bournemouth knocked in three past us and then Watford followed it up with 4 the general consensus was that the Barca tie would be over after the first leg. The fact that we are gutted with a draw shows how well we played. It was a magical night. It’s an uphill task but I truly believe we can get through. We have to use that performance as a springboard to get back on track, starting at Old Trafford.

S: Chelsea’s results have suffered since Conte got in to a war of words with Mourinho (W4 D6 L3 in 2018). You’ll be very familiar with Mourinho’s mind games. Did he get the better of Conte here?

R: I think it’s a very easy conclusion to draw but I think it’s far more nuanced and layered than that. We have been porous at the back all season, Burnley walloped us on the opening day. Our dip coincided with the spat with Mourinho, so while I don’t think the back and forth was helpful I equally don’t think that Mourinho can take credit for it. Conte gave as good as he got I thought, which is better than anyone else (Guardiola in Spain, Wenger voyeur etc) has ever managed against Mourinho.

S: Conte wanted Lukaku but he came to United. He has 9 goals more than Morata so far this season. Are you happier with your summer striker signing?

R: Haha. Strike one, Scott. If this were an interview, I’d be doing a Roy Hodgson about now.

No. As you well know! I am not happy with our striker. Not at all. I think he’s an exceptionally gifted footballer but is lacking in so many departments. You undoubtedly got a better striker. However, I don’t think either of us have a striker worthy of our clubs. To answer this question though, I concede that Lukaku is better than Morata. But I’ve had the privilege of watching Drogba, Anelka and Costa lead the line over the past decade or so, while you have lived the dream with Van Nistelrooy, Ronaldo and Rooney. For me, neither Lukaku nor Morata’s name can be mentioned in the same breath as our great forwards. Neither of us have a representative in the top five goalscorers, that is an unacceptable situation for the pair of us.

S: If you could have any United player in your squad, who would it be and why?

R: Can we have about four? If you’re forcing me to pick one I think it has to be Anthony Martial. Every time I watch him play he seems to be such a threat. Direct and confident with a great eye for a goal and he’s 22. What more can you ask for?

S: Who should United be most fearful of on Sunday?

R: Eden Hazard. He is so good. He has all of the attributes to one day win a Balon d’Or and the thought of him not signing a new contract is giving me sleepless nights. He has a propensity to play well against United and if he does on Sunday we will win the game. That’s how special he is.

S: Chelsea sold Matic and bought Bakayoko. Was that a mistake?

R: Haha. Strike 2, one more and you’re out. I’m going to break this question into two if that is ok? Selling Matic was the right move for us. He had grown stale at Chelsea. He went about six months without ever playing well and he was stifling our play. In principle we play an explosive, fast-paced game and Matic’s best attribute is slowing the game down. So he wasn’t conducive to what we were trying to achieve therefore he had to move on. Buying Bakayoko has been a disaster though. Personally speaking, I feel a bit sorry for him and think he has been scapegoated but the overall view towards him is so negative. So letting Matic go was right but signing Bakayoko has been pretty disastrous.

S: Prediction for Sunday?

R: I think we will win. I thought we were worthy winners in the 1-0 game earlier this season and Old Trafford has been kind to us over the years. Conte is going to demand a performance and we must build on the Barcelona result in the week. 2-1 Chelsea.

"CR
Lingard wouldn't be dropped from my 4-3-3.. it's fluid so he can attack from the middle too.. only when in our defensive shape he'd just have to work a bit on the right and to be honest, with his work rate defensively I'd rather have him there (defending on the right) than the rest of our attackers.."

I would still prefer him as a traditional 10 but I think that what you say there could work. At the very least it is well worth trying.

Going to be very interesting to see which team JM fields tomorrow. If Pogba isn't there and Martial isn't playing in his best position there's going to be a lot of questions asked. We need to cement top four and go for it in the cups...

Yusuf
Champions league football..
Scraped that.. just about.. and it's in question whether we'll get it again next year or not.. at this stage it shouldn't be like that..

Youth
Not really brought anyone through aside from mctominnay when in total need of a midfielder.. but I'll give credit where it's due.. he's done more than his fare share and he's given the youth a chance.. although he should be handling some better like Shaw, martial and Rashford..

Trophies
How you can claim that when we're not even close to winning anything this season and don't look likely either I'll never know..

Superstars
When's the last time somebody put in a superstar performance under him? Aside from DeGea.. what's the point having world class players if he can't use them right therefore stripping them of their world class label on the pitch? Or superstars.. call them what you like..

League title
Working on it? Ofcourse he's bloody working on it.. but he's failing miserably and it looks as clear as day he isn't going to achieve it with his style.. that's the key issue.. when you know something is not going to work out in 4 years and you have the chance to change before that it'd be foolish not to! Might as well given Moyes his 5 years and bought wingers in to cross and strikers to head the ball in! Moyes was ‘working’ on winning the league! Might've achieved it before he retired..

The frustration isn't city doing exceptionally well.. it's the fact that we have a level/better quality squad and should've been up there with or above city and we're nowhere near them.. and every time we lost ground on them it was Jose's fault.. changed his winning ways as soon as we went up against Stoke.. dropped 2 points.. went to Liverpool in great form and Liverpool off form.. totally killed our momentum.. next few games we lost ground on city.. come up against city, same thing.. gave up before the game started and we ended up losing even more ground in the following games..

Why not compare to sir Alex? We want to be the best we've got to reach his sort of levels again don't we? Why settle for lower? That's exactly the sort of mentality we shouldn't have.. aim high!

Yusuf why should i move on from Utd tradition and the way we've always played football and accept bad decision making and mostly ave football.It's not me that needs to move on it's managers who can't deliver what the club has stood for dating back to the Babes and what is expected
That's the whole point in why most of us are not happy,we're not fucking Chelsea or any other upstart tosser club and i will not move on to accept shit football and questionable management

Just about scraped it? So what! We got it and we're better off financially and pulling power because of it.. shitty won the league on the last day, as did Chelsea but they won it!

Martial , Shaw and Rashford?
Mobi these guys are grown ass men . They need to be made of thicker stuff to succeed here. The end justifys the means. If they succeed for us , would you credit Jose? Hasn't shaw come on leaps and bounds , as has the productivity of Martial and Rashford .

Title challenge?
We're second and have a better points tally compared to his first season. You term it failing, I term it improvement !

Sir Alex?
You guys will drive yourselves crazy. Sir Alex is the best manager ever. Even if Mourinho were to win a treble in his first, he would never be in his league. He is the holy grail
Just be patient and let Jose do Jose ...

I Think a lot of you are harsh buts let's agree to disagree.

P.S I see, dislike but accept his shortcomings ... you have to rake the good with the bad..

TOD,

You say that " were not Chelsea" but you expect us to hire and fire like them and not give any time to a manger because he doesn't play attacking football... come on buddy!

@Yusuf we are second right now, I became a Manchester United fan because of the style of football, we are one of the biggest team in the world and you expect us to accept mediocrity, why did real madrid sack Benitez, why did Barca sack tata Martino, why did Bayern Munich sack Ancelotti, they don't settle for less. The first step of improvement is to have a style of play, we don't have that, second players chemistry and improvement, we don't have. Why settle for less. We all know how bad mourinho always preform in his third season or are expecting a miracle? There is no two ways about it, mourinho has done his best which is not good enough for us, we need to move on

Yusuf when Jose was hired he promised to bring back Utd football and then turns around and try to turn us into Chelsea,he lied to the fans.
There's nothing about his management style i like.I think his man management is poor,as Ezzerguru said he isn't a pleasant man,he's very petty,can't be told anything,has a big ego and is thin skinned.
He makes team selections not based on form but who was one of his big signings or who he dislikes at that particular moment.A lot of the time the tactics is no better than the relegation teams we just have better players.
He's obsessed with spending money but it's doing no good.I haven't seen 1 thing from him since coming to the club that makes me say thank god we got Jose and unless he changes his whole attitude and tactics i don't want him,he's ruining the clubs image and reputation imo

Are we now arsenal that celebrates top four? At Bayern Munich the minimum requirement is attacking style of play, the league and semi finals in CL, Barca same thing, Real Madrid same thing, during Sir Alex same thing. Why aim for top four? Because its mourinho

Mourinho is in his second year with us still no good style of play, are we a rich man stoke city? Where is the players improvement? For no reason all the players are not good enough and don't know how to play good football. @Yusuf are Liverpool players better than ours? or tottenham players better than ours? How is Lukaku better than rashford? Is Lukaku better than Jesus of man city? Yusuf you can settle for mediocrity but not me. I wish mirain was still commenting here

Thus far in the season it hasn’t been a disaster for us.If anything the premiership is bonkers this year with the bottom 10 and the race for 2nd has shaped up.City been so dominant and playing good football is depressing,Spurs and Liverpool are easier on the eye than us that’s a big part of it.Old Trafford is quite on game days for various reasons one being the entertainment factor.
You’d expect to be a little more entertained with all the money spent.
If we don’t finish 2nd or 3rd that’s a bad return on the investment.
Then you’d have to ask yourself should Jose be given another 300 mil to play un entertaining football.
I’m not sure next few weeks will tell a tale.

Bonaventure nail on the head Utd are the biggest team in the World a elite team in terms of what is expected of us and our history.
We're supposed to play and win with swagger,not set up like fucking West Brom and try and scrape out a point.As i said in a earlier post if Chelsea fans are happy with the shit tactics managers like Conte serves up good for them but we're not Chelsea or any other of those tossers but unfortunately getting dragged down to their level,While some fans want us to accept that are saying forget about our history and who we are
Well fuck that.

Tod that's a good question, we'll wait for an answer, just like I asked.. when was the last time one of our players (aside from DeGea) put in a ‘superstar’ performance..
Bonaventure
Lol.. Mira was over the top.. I can't remember one thing we used to agree on.. but fair play to him.. it was always calm, civil debates and wherever he is hope he comes back..

Yusuf
Let José do José
That is he problem.. José way is getting u nowhere.. clear as day for everyone to see.. why wait and give him another 2 years when you're 99% sure you won't win the league? It's a waste of 2 years..
There's no improvement in our style of play from last season.. pretty much the same football for 2 years.. only difference between this season and last is individual players producing individual moments

Can anyone seriously tell me our game isn't based on individual talents of attackers?

I honestly think if Jose really wants to make amend and save the season he must win those three PL games at home against Chelsea which is tomorrow, Dippers and arsenal. Also win us the FA cup and also make some good impression in champions league(dont say we win it coz that is beyond reach with Jose's approach). Other than those I mentioned any further decline form wise or in result would be a total failure for us snd for Jose as number one factor.. so here we go tic tac